agile transition

There's a trend of organizations declaring they are agile without actually changing how they develop software. Declaring that an apple is an orange doesn’t make it so. These six key indicators can help you determine whether your agile project isn’t really agile after all—and give you some solutions to help.

Federal agencies generally have more regulation, slower processes, and a command-and-control style of bureaucracy. How does it work when trying to foster agility and implement a continuous delivery model? Gene Gotimer relates his experiences and challenges with encouraging a culture change in federal government.

Building your agile organization only starts with developing software in an agile way. The next step is transforming your business with a customer-focused embrace of agile across the entire enterprise. Managers who want a truly agile organization must lead with focus, steer from the edges, and change the system.

Too often, organizations try to rush agile change. It is usually because they want to see the business benefits of agile as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, change doesn’t work like that—you can’t rush it. In fact, trying to change too fast often results in no change at all. Here are some examples to avoid.

Not all agile transformations are successful in the same way; in fact, it’s possible to get tremendous value out of a failed attempt. A team that doesn't end up fully transitioning to an agile framework can still borrow some lessons from agile development methods to improve their processes.

One of the primary questions for agile teams adopting a new approach such as Scrum is whether to start with principles or practices. Sometimes the best way to learn principles is indirectly, through practice. Experiences are a great way to learn, and sometimes they even teach you skills without your realizing it.

A so-called generative culture has all the characteristics necessary to support self-directed teams, shared responsibility, experimentation, and continuous process improvement. But what about the rest of us? Most large organizations don't have a culture where agile will take hold so easily. Here's what needs to change.

Successful agile teams often have a coach driving continuous improvement. While some coaches are effective initially, many eventually succumb to pitfalls that inhibit their team’s growth and fail to compel any lasting changes. Here are five common pitfalls of agile coaches in most projects that fail to improve.